Conveyor unit with accumulation of receptacles such as bottles

ABSTRACT

A conveyor unit with accumulation of receptacles, such as bottles, includes an accumulation table onto which a feed conveyor opens out upstream, whilst downstream, the table supplies receptacles onto a passive aligner for leading the above in single file to a processing unit downstream. Furthermore, the passive aligner runs parallel to the accumulator table, the above having, in the downstream extension thereof, a transfer conveyor, on which receptacles are pushed laterally by a guide rail towards the passive aligner onto an adjacent transport conveyor running in the opposite sense which becomes the feed conveyor for the passive aligner.

RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a conveyor unit with accumulation ofreceptacles such as bottles, comprising an accumulation table onto whicha feed conveyor opens out upstream, whilst downstream, said tablesupplies said receptacles onto a passive aligner for leading the latterin one single row to a processing unit downstream.

This invention will find its application in the field of the conveyingplants for receptacles, in particular bottles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a line for conditioning a product in receptacles, such as thebottling units, these receptacles pass through various processingstations, for example through a washing unit, a bottling machine, alabeling machine, even a conditioner, between which stations thesereceptacles or bottles move by means of conveyors, in particular chainconveyors. In fact, these stations have production rhythms which differfrom each other, so that it is necessary, at the level of theintermediate conveying, to form buffer stocks of receptacles, inaddition to the fact that some of these stations require more frequentinterventions than others. Therefore, in order to avoid, during suchintervention, the complete stop of a plant, for example a bottlingchain, accumulation tables are provided for, which allow to temporarilystore the bottles proceeding from an upstream processing unit, until theend of the intervention and the downstream processing unit isre-started.

For example, from JP-A-61 051415 is known an accumulation table arrangedparallel to a single-row conveyor onto which the receptacles arrive oneby one. If a jamming occurs in the downstream portion of this single-rowconveyor, these receptacles escape laterally on the accumulation table.Through reversing the direction of operation of the chains the latter iscomprised of the stored receptacles are anew injected onto thesingle-row conveyor.

One understands very well that the number of bottles likely to be storedbetween two stations determines the time available for an operator toensure his intervention without it being necessary to completely stopthe production chain.

In brief, the more receptacles can be accumulated between two successiveprocessing stations, the more flexible will be the use of theconditioning plant.

Obviously, this is not without some concessions. In particular, theconveying units with accumulation prove very bulky, which raises theproblem of their integration into a production site where the flooroccupation has to be optimized.

If we consider the particular case of an accumulation table of the typeas described in WO-00/41955, it has a large capacity of passiveaccumulation of receptacles. However, its length associated, downstream,with that of a passive aligner for these receptacles, the aim of whichis to convey the latter in one single row towards a next processingunit, most often proves too large for this aggregate to find its placein a production chain.

In this respect, though it is usual, in newly installed plants, tointegrate, between two successive processing stations, conveying unitswith accumulation, it is increasingly more often sought to provide alsothe existing plants with them and, in such a case, the problem set forthabove is even more obvious.

Other conveying units with accumulation are also known, which aresubstantially comprised of two helical conveyors nested into each other,one progressing in one direction and the other one in the oppositedirection, while a transfer device is designed capable of ensuring thetransfer of the receptacles accumulating on the first conveyor andproceeding from an upstream processing unit towards the second conveyorwhich feeds a downstream processing unit. This transfer device iscapable of progressing alongside the helix between both conveyorsdepending on the quantity of accumulated receptacles.

The drawbacks of such an embodiment derive from its complexity. Inparticular, the interventions by an operator prove very difficult.Furthermore, one easily understands that, in order to allow the transferof a receptacle from one conveyor to another, the latter may not beprovided with guiding rails at their communicating lateral sides.Therefore, receptacles often fall down and the speed of progression ofthe latter is necessarily slow.

These units also have a problem of integration due to their size, not inlength, but in width and in height, in addition to the fact that theyhave an accumulation capacity often much smaller than that of a table ofthe type as described in WO 00/41955.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Finally, this invention has been able to cope with the above-mentioneddrawbacks through a conveyor unit comprised of an accumulation table anda passive receptacle aligner which, through a particular arrangement ofthe latter, proves to be of a very small size taking into account theaccumulation capacity it provides.

To this end, the invention relates to a conveyor unit with accumulationof receptacles such as bottles, comprising an accumulation table ontowhich a feed conveyor opens out upstream, whilst downstream, this tablesupplies said receptacles onto a passive aligner designed capable ofconveying the latter in one single row to a processing unit downstream,characterized in that the passive aligner runs parallel to theaccumulation table, the latter comprising, in the downstream extensionthereof, a transfer conveyor, on which the receptacles are pushedlaterally by a guiding rail towards said passive aligner onto ajuxtaposed transition conveyor running in the opposite sense whichdefines the feed conveyor for said passive aligner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The advantages resulting from this invention will become clear whenreading the following description which refers to one embodiment shownin the FIGURE of the attached drawing.

FIG. 1

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As shown in this FIGURE, this invention relates to a conveyor unit 1with accumulation of receptacles 2, in particular bottles.

It comprises an accumulation table 3 upstream 4 of which ends a feedconveyor 5 for supplying receptacles proceeding from an upstreamprocessing unit 6, while, in its downstream portion 7, this accumulationtable 3 is designed capable of supplying the receptacles 2 onto apassive aligner 8 provided for conveying these receptacles in one singlerow towards a downstream processing unit 9.

Turning back to the accumulation table 3, it is of the type as describedin WO.00/41955 and is comprised of chains the speed of which can becontrolled so as to form, in the downstream portion 7, a buffer stock ofreceptacles aimed at avoiding an interruption in the supply ofreceptacles 2 at the level of the downstream processing unit 9.

Furthermore, on some of these chains the progression of which is stoppedduring the accumulation can be pushed the receptacles conveyed by themoving chains. Thus, this accumulation on the immobilized chains occursin a passive way.

A distributor 10 placed upstream 4 of the table 3 ensures a gooddistribution of these receptacles over the full width of the latter.

In addition, this table 3 can have a length adjustable to the quantityof receptacles 2 that are sought to be accumulated between twoprocessing units 6, 9. In particular, this table 3 can be comprised ofone or several modules 31, 32, 33, 34.

As regards the passive aligner 8, it is also comprised of a table 11aimed at stretching a flow of receptacles so as to bring them in onesingle row in the downstream portion 12.

Thus, this table 11 is formed of a juxtaposition of chains in closedcircuit 13, the receptacles 2 being progressively pushed, through aguiding rail 14, from one lateral side 15 of this table 11 towards theopposite lateral side 16, taking into consideration that, in thistransversal direction, the chains 13 have a progressively increasingtravel speed, as a matter of fact in order to stretch the flow ofreceptacles 2.

According to the invention, this passive aligner 8 runs parallel to theaccumulation table 3, taking into consideration that the receptacleshave to move in a direction opposite their progression on this table 3.In fact, the latter includes, in the extension of its downstream portion7, a transfer conveyor 17 topped with a guiding rail 18 that pushes thereceptacles 2 sidewise onto a transition conveyor 19 with an oppositetravel direction, which is directly juxtaposed to it and feeds, upstream20, the passive aligner 8.

It is known that the longer such a passive aligner is, the lesser willbe the likeliness that two receptacles will arrive side by side in itsdownstream portion 12. It happens to be so that, due to the shearingeffect imparted by the transition conveyor 19 the travel direction isopposite that of the chains of the transfer conveyor 17, the flow ofreceptacles is already stretched from the beginning and the latterprogress on said transition conveyor 19 in little more than two rows.Under such circumstances, it is obviously easier to nest thesereceptacles into each other, in order to bring them in one single row atthe level of the downstream processing unit 9.

Advantageously, this transition conveyor 19 is also topped with aguiding rail 21 for pushing the receptacles slightly transversally withrespect to their progression, this in a direction opposite the one whichis afterwards imparted by the guiding rail 14 above the table 11corresponding to the passive aligner 8.

In brief, by means of this guiding rail 21 those receptacles which havegone farthest to the side during their transfer are pushed back towardsthe row into which they must be inserted.

Advantageously, in a transversal direction and while separating from thetransfer conveyor 17, the chains 22 of the transition conveyor 19 havean increasing speed gradient, this also in order to increase this effectof nesting into each other of the receptacles upstream of the passivealigner 8.

As results from the preceding description, this invention allows to havea particular compact conveyor unit for receptacles with accumulation,with a much smaller length compared to units with a classicalaccumulation table and a much smaller width compared to the helicalconveyors with accumulation.

Compared to the latter, such conveying unit has also the peculiarity ofhaving an accumulation capacity which can be modulated.

Accordingly, this invention advantageously solves the problem set forth.

1. Conveyor unit with accumulation of receptacles such as bottles, saidconveyor unit comprising an accumulation table: a feed conveyor openingout and onto the table upstream from the table; and a passive aligned,downstream from the table and being supplied said receptacles from thetable, said passive aligner conveying the receptacles in one single rowto a processing unit downstream, wherein said passive aligner runsparallel to said accumulator table, said accumulator table furthercomprising, in a downstream extension thereof, a transfer conveyor, onwhich the receptacles are pushed laterally by a guiding rail towardssaid passive aligner onto a juxtaposed transition conveyor running in anopposite direction which defines the feed conveyor for said passivealigner.
 2. Conveying unit with accumulation according to claim 1,wherein said transition conveyor is topped with a guiding rail pushingback the receptacles transversally with respect to progression thereof,and in a direction opposite to one imparted to the receptacles by aguiding rail above a table corresponding to the passive aligner. 3.Conveying unit with accumulation according to claim 1, wherein saidtransition conveyor is comprised of a juxtaposition of chains having anincreasing speed gradient in a transversal direction while separatingfrom the transfer conveyor.